The Right Choice
by nazkey
Summary: Tigh's advice has a different outcome.


_MY NAME IS SAMUEL T. ANDERS & I LOVE KARA THRACE!_

Lee sat and listened to the not-so-distant declaration of love and mentally kicked himself for not leaving on that last transport.

_SAMUEL T. ANDERS LOVES KARA THRACE!_

Good gods! Did the man never shut up?

Lee tensed, waiting. Waiting to see if ishe/i said anything back, but all he heard was her raucous guffaw floating through the air. Even knowing exactly what she was doing out there with that frakking pyramid boy of hers didn't stop Lee from getting a tingle down his spine at the sound of that laugh.

That's what she always did to him. From the moment he'd laid eyes on Kara Thrace, his entire life had been turned upside down and it seemed like nothing, not even the end of the worlds would rid him of her. The pathetic thing was he didn't _want _to be rid of her. She was … everything. Without her, the world was just a sad, dark place and his life meaningless and empty.

Sitting there on the wooden benches, he had to laugh at his own masochism. He couldn't let her go. Even when she was out there with some moron who was shouting his love to the skies, he was still waiting for her to return so he could … what, exactly? It didn't really matter. He just wanted to see her and it wasn't like he had any where to go or any way to get there. He had to wait until the transport came back to pick him up. So he just waited, cradling the second glass of rut gut, getting good & drunk, listening to the distant sounds of Kara frakking Thrace and her frakking pyramid boy … frakking.

* * *

><p>With the first rays of the dismal sun peaking through the horizon, he saw her walking back to camp, hands jammed in her pockets, shoulders slumped and head hung low. Certainly not like a woman who was happy and - he shuddered - in love.<p>

"Hey," he said, startling her.

"Hey," she said, dejectedly, walking over to sit next to him. "What are you still doing here? Dee kick you out?"

"Dee and I don't owe each other anything, Kara." Lee said, giving her a stern look.

"Uh … okay. I have no idea what that means, but … whatever." She shrugged and looked away.

He couldn't believe it. Did she really just saunter in after her rather loud night of debauchery and expect him to act like it was _nothing?_

"I don't believe this! Do you honestly expect me to sit here and tell you about my life after you've been avoiding me for weeks and after … after … after what you … what you … were _doing _last night?"

She turned on him, eyes filled with that unbreakable Starbuck gaze and snarled, "What I was _doing_ last night? What the frak Lee, you spying on me now?"

Lee let out a laugh and returned her steely look. "Kara, everyone … and I mean every frakking person in this camp heard what you were doing last night. That ball player of yours is pretty loud."

Flushed with anger (and maybe a little bit of embarrassment), Kara jumped up and pointed a finger in Lee's face, "Listen to me Lee Adama, what I do with my …"

"Oh for frak's sake, will the two of you just DO IT and get it over with?" Tight's voice stopped Kara dead. Whirling around, she spotted him leaning against some barrels with Ellen fast asleep in his lap.

Lee had stood up too, tension coming off of him in waves. Kara put a hand on his arm to hold him back and eased her stance as she looked over at Tigh. "And what does that mean?"

"What does it mean? It means, _Captain,_ that the two of you must be the biggest idiots this fleet has ever seen. Do you honestly think you've been fooling anyone with your little games? Do you think the rest of us are just plain dumb and don't see what's going on here?"

"Nothing's going on here," Lee interrupted.

"Yeah, and who's fault is that boy? What, you think just because you're a Commander now and the old man's son, that I'm not going to call you on your crap? Nothing's going on here because you just won't … what is it your father says all the time? Roll the hard six. You want that crazy girl, then DO something. For frak's sake just tell her how you feel and put us all out of our misery."

"You don't know what the frak you're talking about … sir." Starbuck hissed.

Tigh barked out a laugh, "Oh, I don't? You sure 'bout that Starbuck? You think none of us know 'bout that little fiasco with our illustrious new president? Did you think that little weasel could keep his mouth shut? And what, you think any of us actually _believe_ that you went back to Caprica for oh … a week, and came back in love with some guy you'd just met? And a guy who could be Apollo's twin if he were a little bit shorter? You two wanna keep fooling yourselves, go right on ahead, but don't think for one minute that we don't all know your secret."

They stood there staring at the XO with nothing to say. They were both clearly embarrassed and Kara shifted away from Lee trying to think of a way to get herself out of this mess.

"I … well I've got to … I've got to go. I've got to go find Sam and …"

Tigh started laughing again, "yeah, sure you do. You go on ahead. Keep playing this little game of yours. Tell me Starbuck, do you call out Apollo's name when you let your ball player frak you or was it just that one time with the resident genius?"

"WHAT?" Lee turned and grabbed Kara's arm just as she took a step towards Tigh and yelled, "SHUT UP! Just shut the FRAK up."

"Oh now that's rich! You mean you didn't know 'bout that Apollo? Gods but the two of you are pretty stupid." Tigh sighed as he watched Lee trying to come to terms with what he was hearing and Kara deflate right in front of his eyes. "Look, I don't know much about a lot of things, but I've been around long enough to know that once you find someone who means the worlds to you, you don't just walk away from it because it's hard or inconvenient." He looked down at Ellen's sleeping form and softly caressed her hair. "This is it. This is all we've got. There are no more excuses. When you're on the run and you don't know if you're going to live to see tomorrow, you don't keep secrets and you don't dance around. You wanna frak or fight, that's up to you. But make a move! Pick a side! Only don't think the rest of us don't know what you already know and are just too godsdamned stubborn to admit."

* * *

><p>Sam woke up alone and disoriented. But the sounds of laughter coming from the camp slowly brought him back and he remembered last night. He had jumped up and down like a lunatic screaming his love for her and she had … laughed? Okay, so Kara Thrace wasn't exactly a romantic, but he smiled at the memory of it all and began getting dressed.<p>

As he walked back, he wondered how in the worlds the people still had energy to continue celebrating well into the morning.

"Hey! Sam! Wait up!" He turned and saw Dualla running towards him looking slightly worried.

"Hey Dee. You got the early transport run? Come to get Apollo?"

"Yeah. About that. Sam … you should know something …"

"Wow, can you believe this? They're all still partying! Man, I guess everyone's just really excited about mucking around in this …" he looked around at the muddy, depressing landscape, "… muck." He turned and smiled at Dee, missing the sad look of resignation on her face.

"It's not from last night Sam. They're not still partying. This is a … a brand new celebration."

"A celebration? Of what? Must be something big." He suddenly felt cold and he turned to Dee and seeing the confirmation in her eyes, asked, "Hey, have you seen Kara?"

"Yeah Sam. I have."

"Where is she?" The coldness crept in and Sam knew, without a doubt, that he wasn't going to like what came next.

"With her husband."

END


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